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how heteronormative is facebook?

elfsprin

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i'm curious as to how heteronormative facebook might be.

if you are or have been in some form of a "tentative" relationship with a person of the same gender on facebook (ex. just "in a relationship" or "in an open relationship"), do/did you see a lot of ads regarding engagement rings, etc.?

if you are or have been engaged to someone of the same gender on facebook, do/did you get a lot of ads about wedding stuffs?

if you are or have been in a marriage, civil union, domestic partnership etc. with someone of the same gender on facebook, do/have you seen ads that seem to be targeting you based on that relationship?

i'm guessing this may also vary across gender lines, so please do include whether you identify as a male, female, etc. on facebook or not, if you're willing to do so.

example:

ads inflicted on me, a female engaged to a male, though "interested in" both males and females:

"lose __ #s in 4 weeks!"
"cute bridesmaid dresses!"
"find the perfect wedding accessories!"
"free baby stuff!"
"shop ___ for top dress designers and help from personal stylists!"
"amino diet - fit in your dream dress!"
"shop at ___ for your head to toe wedding look!"
"enter for a chance to win gown/trip/jewelry"
"join the _(overpriced store)_ registry today!"
"have the wedding of your dreams!!"

whereas:

the male i'm engaged to currently has ads for "buy this hoodie!" and something about a jellyfish aquarium... he's only seen one or two ads relating to weddings/marriage.
 

chickpea

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i usually just get stuff for pregnancy tests and birth control.
 

kyuuei

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^ :rofl1: I dont know why I found that so hilarious..
 

elfsprin

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i usually just get stuff for pregnancy tests and birth control.

i take it you've selected "female" as your gender on facebook. what "interested in" and/or relationship statuses do you use there?
 

chickpea

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interested in men, i don't have any relationship status listed. i used to be listed as in a relationship with a guy and i don't think i ever got marriage stuff, but it's probably age related too. they use all your demographics, interests, etc to choose advertising.

^ :rofl1: I dont know why I found that so hilarious..

lol, hulu is the worst. every commercial i get is either for plan b or cat food. how do they know me so well??
 

elfsprin

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they use all your demographics, interests, etc to choose advertising.

right. but i'm curious if they're equal opportunity annoyers, or if they're fairly heteronormative with their advertising. i wonder, if you said that you were in a relationship with a woman, whether those bc ads would go away.

i know that advertisers have some say over their target market, but i'm assuming that the advertisers specifications still rely on code written by facebook programers when it comes to the actual distribution of ads to various users; that's why i would put the onus on facebook directly if there were noticeably heteronormative biases in the ads.
 

Santosha

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I'm not sure if the gender and relationship status is what they really use to exploit and barrage you with advertisements. Mine seems to be more connected to my likes, activities, books, music, groups and friends. On my page right now I have:

-Herbology & Alt Health
-Annie's Homegrown
-Blend Tec Total Blender
-Exclusive designer sales
-Various vacation packages
-Ron Paul exclusive event
-Justia Free Law
-Droid Bionic

and I notice that everything offered to me is liked by someone on my friend list.

I am a female in a relationship with a name (that happens to be male)
 

Red Herring

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Hmm, I am a 31 year old female in a relationship.

Advertisement currently on my facebook page:
- an African restaurant several hours from where I live (never mentioned African cuisine)
- a moving service (no intentions of moving house)
- an online shoe shop (this one is insulting! I have no interest in shoes, hate the stereotype that women are supposedly shoe-crazy and buying them online is stupid anyway since you have to try them on first)
- advice on weightloss ("How to loose 15 kg in 2 weeks"... if I lost 15 kg I'd be in the hospital, probably in a koma..insulting female stereotyping again)
- two browser games (I stopped playing facebook games about two years ago and never played other browser games)

In other words, I am clueless as to why this advertisement is directed at me...other than that I am female, which is apparently enough. I never "liked" anything that would suggest those - admittedly very generic- interests and I am even somewhat offended by this supposed targeting.

This sample is fairly representative. When I was single I also got ads for "millionaires in search of German girlfriends" and okcupid-style websites. :doh:
 

elfsprin

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i suspect that most of the time, that's true (that they use your likes/activities/most commonly used words/friends).

but, i wonder: i just got engaged on sunday, and all the wedding/diet crap started immediately thereafter. before that, i was in a relationship, then in an open relationship, with this same male for about 2.5 years. after the year mark, i started getting engagement ring ads, but i never never had marriage ads.

now all the ring ads are gone, and it's all dream dresses and personal stylists.
 

elfsprin

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aw, come on. there have to be other queer users here, yeah? who are interested in analyzing ridiculous things like this? for the sake of science?
 

Randomnity

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I'm pretty good at not noticing ads at all. Except that goddamn lose all your bellyfat ad which is EVERYWHERE.

facebook stats: listed as single and interested in men. ads for...uh, I see no ads? I see a "sponsored story" (which won't even load), that's it. I swear there used to be real ads once. maybe my computer/internet is blocking them for some reason....

I'd be surprised if they bothered to analyze the gender of the person you're listed as engaged to. If you happen to have any gay engaged friends, that would be the test. I do, but she's more of an acquaintance so I'm not going to ask.
 

elfsprin

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I have quite a few queer friends of the gay and lesbian variety (read: definitely always in a relationship with the same gender), but I was hoping for a larger sample size: my "quite a few" is relative to my total number of friends, which is smallish.
 

Usehername

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FB shows me Amazon books that my friends mention and it is advertising a kindle daily deal from amazon.

I read a lot.
 
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